Chapter 4 - THE FALL OF THE EMPIREThe news broke the following Monday.
"THE GHOST BRIDE RETURNS: CATERING MOGUL ALIVE AFTER SIX YEARS."
The scandal was a wildfire that consumed the Vance stock prices within hours.
I provided the police with everything:
the fake death certificate,
the medical records from the public hospital,
and the evidence of Victoria’s financial transfers to Dr. Thorne.
Julian tried to play the victim,
claiming he was a pawn in his mother’s game.
But the public didn't care.
They saw a man who had abandoned his pregnant wife in a storm.
They saw a coward.
I stood in the courtroom three weeks later,
wearing a suit that cost more than my wedding dress ever had.
Victoria was in the defendant's chair,
looking small and frail without her pearls and her pride.
She had been charged with conspiracy,
fraud,
and endangerment.
When it was my turn to testify,
I didn't look at her.
I looked at the judge and told the story of the girl who had been thrown into the rain.
I told them about the years of being told I was broken.
I told them about the joy of seeing my son’s face for the first time in a cold hospital ward.
"I am not here for money,"
I said,
my voice echoing through the chamber.
"The Vance fortune is tainted with the blood of the people they've crushed."
"I am here for the truth."
"I want the world to know that they didn't just try to steal my life;"
"they tried to steal the future of a child who had done nothing but exist."
Julian sat in the gallery,
his head in his hands.
He had lost everything.
The divorce was being reopened and declared void,
which meant I was legally entitled to half of everything he owned.
But I didn't want his houses or his cars.
I negotiated a settlement that stripped Victoria of her remaining assets and placed them into a trust for Leo.
A trust that Julian would never be able to touch.
As I walked out of the courthouse,
the press swarmed me.
"Mrs. Vance!
Evelyn!
Are you going back to him?"
I stopped and looked into the cameras.
"Evelyn Vance died in the rain six years ago,"
I said.
"I am Evelyn Carter."
"And I am finally,
fully,
alive."
I saw Chloe standing by the gates,
holding her daughter’s hand.
She looked at me with a mixture of fear and respect.
I walked over to her and handed her a card for a good lawyer.
"Get out while you can,"
May you like
I whispered.
"The monsters are finally in their cages."
